Pinterest Case Study: Why You Don’t Need Pinterest Followers

Pinterest is one of the best platforms to grow your website's traffic these days. Even after the algorithm change earlier this year, Pinterest remains my top referral source for driving traffic to my blog each month. In fact, over 90% of my monthly traffic comes directly from Pinterest

When I first started blogging, I spent way too much time worrying about SEO, ranking well in Google search results and figuring out long tail keywords. Once I realized this was a moot point for me, I chose to ignore every blog post and article that discussed how important these things were if I wanted my blog to do well.

Instead, I started spending more time on Pinterest. Immediately, I started seeing results! My blog traffic continued to climb each month, all directly from Pinterest.

Here's a snapshot of my traffic from last year:

From January to July, I was getting between 1,000 to 5,000 page views a month. Once I implemented Pinterest last summer, my traffic started increasing.

After my first month of using Pinterest, I went from 5,000 to 40,000 page views in August! Since then, my traffic has continued to climb each month.

Pinterest is a platform I feel extremely comfortable using. If you are not using Pinterest, you need to start immediately. Compared to Facebook, Pinterest has a much higher reach to your targeted audience.

Pinterest case study

One of the biggest misconceptions with Pinterest is that you need to have a high following to do well. This is completely false. I am going to show you how I drive traffic to my blog each month from Pinterest with a low following.

What if I told you it doesn't matter how many Pinterest followers you have? Sure, common sense says high following should convert into high traffic right? Well…not necessarily.

As of writing this post, I'm hovering around 2,700 followers on Pinterest.

Even though I have a small following compared to bigger bloggers, my audience reach is really high. Each month, my pins are seen by 600,000 to 800,000 viewers.

A higher audience reach results in more traffic to my website. In the past month, I've had around 200,000 page views to my site, even with my small amount of Pinterest followers.

This means my audience reach converts really well when it comes to click-thru rates to my blog.

Why is this so great?

First, I don't pay for promoted pins (although I might in the future). All of my growth to my blog is organic and I can monitor what is working and not working via Pinterest Analytics.

Second, I spend roughly $10 a month for Tailwind (I have an annual plan which saves me money), which is the program I use to schedule my pins.

Third, I spend roughly an hour a week to plan my Pinterest schedule. I have no desire, nor the time, to try find a bunch of fellow pinners and hope they follow me back. Instead I can use my time wisely to pin my best content to my best boards. This means I can pin to the best boards – primarily group boards – as well as re-pin other great content from fellow bloggers.

For four hours of my time and around $10 a month, that's a pretty good return of investment!

Why you don't need a lot of Pinterest followers

Unless you have a great marketing plan to utilize Pinterest, it doesn't matter how many Pinterest followers you have. If you don't have a pinning plan, it doesn't matter if you have 100 followers or 1,000 Pinterest followers.

Of course, if you have a high amount of followers and have a solid marketing plan, you will see the results and drive even more traffic to your blog.

But if your initial goal is to increase your Pinterest followers for the sake of having a high following count, it's pointless. If you aren't pinning in front of the right audience, with the right pins and on a regular basis, your followers aren't going to see your pins.

Instead, you should focus on finding your right audience. Here's a few tips:

Not all group boards are created equal

Just because a group board has a high following does not make it your ideal board

Using Pinterest Analytics, research who your audience is. You can learn what topics our viewers are researching – use this information to your advantage!

How to increase your Pinterest presence

There's several different factors that go into creating a dynamic Pinterest presence. The criteria is as follows:

Perfecting the Pinterest pin

Make sure your pins are

vertical

bright, bold and standout

descriptive

Utilizing Pinterest for blog growth

Have you done the following?

Written a great profile as well as descriptions for all your boards?

Organized your boards so a reader can navigate easily?

Using a scheduler, such as Tailwind

No one has time to be on Pinterest all the time. Using a scheduler like Tailwind can do all the pinning for you. To a viewer, it looks like I am pinning all day long, seven days a week.

Shh…I'll let you in on a secret. Aside from creating my schedule every Monday for an hour, I don't spend any extra time on Pinterest.

Bottom line – you need to do a few different things if you want to succeed on Pinterest.

Just because you create a beautiful pin doesn't mean someone is going to see it. And just because you schedule your pins each day, viewers aren't necessarily going to click on your pin if it doesn't meet the criteria of a perfect pin.

Need more tips?

If you are a new blogger or an experienced blogger that has yet to tap into Pinterest's resources and want to grow your traffic ASAP, make sure you check out my Pinterest Presence course.

49 Comments

I’m just starting out on Pinterest with my blog and I definitely see the value and potential there. Currently, almost half of my traffic comes from Pinterest and that’s with little content of my own. Thanks so much, Kristin, for the reminder that the number of followers is not important. Good stuff, as always.

Kristin
on April 27, 2016 at 10:32 am

Great job Regina! The more work you put into Pinterest, the more it pays off.

Very interesting! I always thought that the more followers you had the more traffic you’d get from Pinterest.

I’ve been meaning to get into it for quite a while. Do you think it’s worth outsourcing the pinning and repinning at 4 bucks an hour or should I just do it myself first?

Thanks!

Kristin
on April 27, 2016 at 10:39 am

Hi Ilya! I consider Pinterest to be more of a search engine – so that’s why I don’t worry about followers as much. There are people who manage Pinterest accounts (myself included). I actually created my Pinterest course for people that want to go the DIY route and save money!

I signed up for a free trial with BoardBooster and am slowly noticing Pinterest driving some traffic to my website. Next month, I will try Tailwind. BoardBooster isn’t very intuitive. I’m hoping Tailwind is more user-friendly.

Kristin
on April 27, 2016 at 10:41 am

Hi Aliyyah! I think everyone has different results with TW and BB. I moved all but 1 of my clients to Tailwind and the results are just so much better. Tailwind lets me be so much more specific with my pinning date and times, where I feel like BB is hit or miss. The only advantage I found for BB was that it has the mentality of “Set it and forget it”. With Tailwind I put in a full hour a week, but I’m super precise with all my pins!

I have just started my baby steps with Pinterest, I do find it confusing! How do you link to your blog from an image?

Kristin
on May 12, 2016 at 1:41 pm

There are 2 ways – you can upload an image directly to Pinterest and there is a space where you insert the URL. Otherwise, in the blog post you just insert an image and it will automatically link to your post!

Thanks for the great post. It was more descriptive than most posts about using pinterest and how it helps you get blog growth. I’m new to blogging and I spend a lot of time on pinterest to bring traffic in. How would I find group boards in my niche to join on Pinterest so I can get more involved with others bloggers? If you ever think about writing a post about finding group boards or party links and describing what they are and how they are useful I would love to see it. Your a great writer and its so hard to find posts about this. I wish someone could just simply explain what they are instead of assuming new bloggers know exactly what they are and the benefits of it.

Kristin
on May 16, 2016 at 11:30 pm

Hey Carmen! Thanks for your kind words. Ok – if you read this in time, I’m actually teaching a free Pinterest session this Saturday – you sign up here: bit.ly/First100kWebinar . I’m going to cover a lot of info, including info on group boards! I also have a Pinterest course that has a ton of CRAZY helpful info on group boards, including the best 3 ways to find group boards, how to apply, etc. I also share ALL the group boards I’m in so other can check them out. Hope this helps!

Hi, great article. I’m still learning about the whole blogging thing and promotion and driving traffic is something I’m really struggling with. Is your course still available? I’d be really interested in learning how to become a member of group boards. I feel like there’s so much to learn.

Kristin
on May 17, 2016 at 11:45 am

Hey Katherine! YES – Unit II is full of info on group boards. I go over how to find them (there’s 3 ways you can do this) and how to apply. I even include a list of group boards I’m in (with links) so you can see if they are a good for your blog! I also discuss strategy on how to use group boards to really get that traffic!

Thanks so much for the great info! As a newbie blogger, it is really nice to know that a heavy Pinterest following isn’t required to get traffic to my page. I just saw that I missed the training session, will you be hosting another one soon?

Kristin
on May 26, 2016 at 7:15 pm

Hey Christina! Yes- you can do fine without a lot of followers, so don’t be intimidated. I plan on doing a Pinterest webinar each month – I can email you when the next one is!

These are great tips. I should look at Pinterest more i think. There are so many social media sites, its so overwhelming but I guess pinterest is the best to draw traffic to your site. Thanks for sharing xx

Kristin
on May 28, 2016 at 7:21 pm

Hey Eva! Pinterest quickly became the dominant source for my traffic – nothing has come close and the best part is that Pinterest is FREE. The payoff is just amazing!

Some wonderful insight here and it kind of follows the same logic about other types of followers on different social networks. While it can be too easy to get caught up in the numbers (because they are awesome), one thing we can easily overlook is the quality of those followers. Are they aligned with our values, etc.

Obviously, you want as many people as possible following you and becoming part of your tribe, but those numbers become meaningless if they aren’t on the same path with you.

Getting a 40k boost in pageviews is pretty awesome by just starting off. Can you give any insight into what you did or what you think caused that quick success?

Kristin
on June 16, 2016 at 9:19 am

Hi Paul, I don’t worry too much about gaining instant followers. I’m more focused on organic growth, so if that takes time – I would prefer it that way in order to get the right tribe! DEfinitely in agreement on that – no one wants spammers 🙂

If you are just starting with Pinterest, you need to make sure you are pinning regularly, have great looking images with killer descriptions and getting your pins in front of the right audience! You definitely want to be consistent across the board. I’m hosting another Pinterest webinar on 6/25 where I cover a ton of tips and strategies, so check it out if you can! (Make sure you are on my newsletter list to get the signup link)

This post really made me feel better. I am a new blogger and having a really hard time with Pinterest. I have signed up for Boardbooster but still not getting the hang of it.
Hope to get the Pinterest game soon.

Kristin
on July 27, 2016 at 9:17 am

Hey Sireesha! Pinterest can be overwhelming when you are just starting out. Did you sign up for my free mini-Pinterest course? I used to use BB, but have better results with Tailwind. BB is less time consuming though, so a lot of people prefer to start on that platform 🙂

Hi Kristin,
Nice post!
I have one question: How many pins do you schedule in a week?
Thanks,
Andrea

Kristin
on August 29, 2016 at 6:04 pm

This varies, but for the most part I pin around 75-100x a day. It really depends on how many group boards you are in and the rules of each group board. Some group boards have a strict 1 pin per day policy, while others might be unlimited.

I just signed up for the PP Mini Course. I can’t wait to get started! Thank you for sharing your insight. It’s clear you know what you’re doing, considering your follower count compared to your page views. I found this post through Pinterest, after all. I had no idea scheduling services existed for Pinterest… but that just shows how little I know about all of this!

Thank you again, and I look forward to more of your content! I’ve added your blog on feedly, so I’ll see you soon.

All the best,

Stevey @ Bizzie-Body.com

Kristin
on September 27, 2016 at 6:03 pm

Thanks Stevey! I’m always available while you take the mini Pinterest course, so let me know if you have questions 🙂

I’ve taken different pinterest courses. My blog was just launched on the first of the year. Yet, I can’t seem to get the pinterest thing going. I followed all the tips. My niche is a difficult one, a bit of a stigma follows it. I’m thinking of changing things around a little bit to see if that helps. I’m just stuck.

I just started a blog about 2 weeks ago and grown no and learning is fun And difficult. I have only had a 300 view total in this time. I don’t know to be excited or nervous. Is this about normal for 2 weeks?

Hi Kristin,
Thank you so so much for making me feel better about a small following.
I have a question, till I invest in a schedular, should manually also pin around 70 pins daily, even when I’m not in any group board?

Kristin
on February 28, 2017 at 12:42 pm

I think you should work on getting into group boards in addition to pinning to your own audience! You can pin as much as you want, but if your audience is small you want to work on your pins being seen by new faces! That’s why group boards will help so much!

Hey Kristin
Thanks for the great post. I have been using pinterest for a while but never really had a strategy so results were sketchy. I have now set some goals and am working on content to giveaway. I have applied to become a member of many group boards but hardly get a response so not sure what I am doing wrong here. I am just going through your product now so hopefully I will find some answers.
Also on the waiting list for your VA course it looks interesting and a great way to make a side hustle

Kristin Larsen
on April 1, 2017 at 9:34 am

Thanks Jenelle! The course re-opens on 4/7 for a few days 🙂 Pinterest is still my #1 traffic source after 2 years of blogging, so it’s worth the time to spend learning as much as you can!

Brenda
on April 6, 2017 at 4:06 pm

Sounds very helpful. Red to get back into blogging.

Betsy
on April 7, 2017 at 8:08 pm

Hey Kristen,
I loved this post! But I’m only just about to start a blog and I’m trying to figure out how to get traffic earlier rather than later and not sure how to START using pinterest as a tool. Any advice?

Great post Kristin. I’ve been blogging for a while, but I just started really working on Pinterest. I regret that I didn’t give it more attention when I first started, but your post gives me hope that maybe I can still get some great results.

I’m new to Pinterest and am curious about what you pin every day. What is the split between new pins that you have created and other people’s pins? I seem to be spending a lot of time creating new pins. Do you repin your existing pins?

Hey,
thanks for the post.
Totally agree with you..the number of followers don’t actually matter in the amount of traffic Pinterest can redirect to your blog. I’m a firsthand witness of this . .
I use PinPinterest com to automate and manage my Pinterest account, and it manages my account so efficiently that I get followers for my account, as well as those who don’t follow back, they see my content and come back as interacting traffic on my blog. So ultimately, yes, the number of followers you have on your Pinterest don’t really matter, just the content you have on your boards should be interesting and relevant enough for your audience. Plus, you need a good managing tool..the best I’ve found so far is PinPinterest 🙂

Hi Kristen,
Great blog! Very insightful. 😉
I just recently really got into blogging and learning more about it and I decided to start a Pinterest business account. I thought I would need a lot of followers to have a lot of page views, but with just 16 followers I already have 16k monthly views. I freaked out when one day I went on and it said 4k monthly views and I hadn’t hardly done anything. So this helps me understand it a bit better! Thanks so much 😉

Kristin Larsen
on December 31, 2017 at 1:06 am

Right?! It’s not about the amount of followers at all – it’s all about who views your pins, if they go viral, etc. CONGRATS!